History

The agency was established on July 1, 1938,Hachten, William A. (1971). Muffled drums; the news media in Africa. Iowa State University Press. p. 257.Shrivastava, K. M. (2007). News agencies from pigeon to internet. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. p. 235. ISBN 978-1932705676. Reuters had dominated the internal supply of news in South Africa until 1938. When SAPA was founded, Reuters retained the exclusive right to supply it with world news. Reuters ended this partnership in 1995, when it began expanding its own Southern African activities in competition with SAPA.Boyd-Barrett, Oliver; Rantanen, Terhi (1998). The globalization of news. SAGE. p. 165. In February 1938, the constitution for the new agency was framed, and by April that year, it became a co-operative news agency under the control of every British and Afrikaans newspaper that wished to join.Storey, Graham (2007). Reuters' Century 1851-1951. READ BOOKS. p. 200.

During the apartheid era, it was criticised by the ruling National Party for inadequate reporting of the government's viewpoint and Afrikaner culture.Merrett, Christopher Edmond (1995). A Culture of Censorship: Secrecy and Intellectual Repression in South Africa. Mercer...Read More